Kanakadasa's ansestral palace unearthed

Published: Thursday, May 22, 2008, 14:41 [IST]

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Shimoga, May 22 (UNI) An ancient palatial house belonging to 16th century saint, philosopher, musician and composer of Kannada poetry, Kanakadasa, has been unearthed at Bada in Haveri district of Karnataka.

Kaginele Development Authority (KDA) Commissioner S M Jamdar told UNI today that the excavation at Bada, the birth place of Kanakadasa, had been taken up as part of a project work to find more historical evidences on Kanakadasa's life.

Under the supervision of Archaeologist S G Samak the excavation work was undertaken at Bada village which is about 5.5 Km away from Bankapur, Mr Jamdar said.

Local people had deemed this place as birth place of Kanakadasa.

They had built a temple in 1965 and installed his stone idol on the top of a mound. It took about 50 labourers working round the clock to unearth a huge original structure measuring 40 metre long and 30 metres wide mound.

Kanakadasa's original name was Thimmappanayaka. He got this 'Kanaka Nayaka' name when he was said to have found a large quantity of gold while he was digging on his land. 'Kanaka' means gold and 'Nayaka' means the ruler. He was the Chief of the Vijayanagara army in charge of Bankapur and Bada regions.

Several interesting objects belonging to Vijayanagara Kingdom and had been found in the excavation site. This included portico hall, large meeting hall, royal bed room, kitchen and other structures built with bricks and black stone.

Glass bangles, beads, copper coins, silver coins, broken jars, earthen wares, tatrani and other worship articles of medieval period had also been found in the site, he added.

He said that the excavated site would be preserved without disturbing its original structure. Its replica would be built nearby the ancient site without affecting the people's religious sentiments.

Dr Samak said about 100 metres west of this site there was an ancient Ranganathaswamy temple in a dilapidated condition belonging to Rashtrakuta period. Large number of stone sculptures with archaic Kannada inscriptions had been laid scattered in the area.

Kanakadasa was said to have shifted a stone idol of Lord Keshava from this temple to Kaginele and constructed the temple.

The saint-poet was known for his revolutionery socio-cultural preachings.

Mr Jamdar that the authorities were also planning to excavate in the same site to shed more light on the Kanakadasa.

The state government had set up KDA to develop it as a religious place in the state.